Day #4 - Of a man's limits and exhaustion

We climbed down Pico during the early morning, and got back to the boat at about 11:00. We needed to leave soon, as a storm was brewing to the west, and if it would get to us, we would be stuck in the island. 

After a quick tour of the Whaler's Museum and its toilets, we hastily set sail for the longest stretch of our trip - a 12 hour leg from Lajes to Angra, in Terceira Island. And yes, none of us had any proper sleep since day #2 when we left Horta...

We launched using the motor, to beat the front wind that tried to keep us away. We passed some dolphins, and a sea turtle. Kaki decided not to feed the fish this time, and we kept going forward, passing the eastern tip of Pico and turning northeast on our sail, sailing past S. Jorge. As night caught with us, we were leaving behind the tip of S. Jorge, and sailing head on to the wind and bigger waves.

What followed was one of the best shows of manliness and control I've taken part, as under Mareco we all struggled to stay awake and sail the ship against waves that reached 3 metres and 25 knot winds. At some point, we just dropped the sails and went by motor, as the wind was against us, and Bizarro, me, Geirinhas and Kaki went along the night, singing all the Portuguese songs we could remember, backed up by my collection of mp3 and my new Bluetooth speaker. I also learned a lot of nonsense coming from Jorge Jesus, the previous coach from Benfica, who had recently turned his cloak and go to Sporting. "Tá a chorarí" has since that night become the mantra of our trip.

A tiny shell, cutting the waves in the darkness.

As the wind and waves got stronger, Mareco took over and had to hoist the jib sail to have a bit more power, as we were getting stalled.

I got back to help around 01:00. Mareco was relentless at the helm, and Ribs was helping him keep the sails and steering. I took over Ribs and kept going until we reach Horta.

I have met few mariners, and now, João Mareco has earned my respect and, albeit being a short one, he tops the list. As we safely entered port, around 02:15, the duty guard told us we could have a hot shower, and informed us that an Orange Alert had just been launched all over the archipelago for storms on the next days. We were stuck in Terceira, but we had made it.